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International audience; To reinforce the environmental standards, we need to strengthen the lightening of vehicles and to generalize new composite materials in order to reduce weight. To use these innovative composite materials in the mass production of automotive parts, it is essential to propose a predictive approach of the S-N curves, which must be established for each new composite formulation and for several types of microstructure within real components. Although these preliminary characterizations consume time and money, this paper proposes two hybrid methodologies to predict the fatigue life during the fatigue test. Both methodologies are based on micromechanical modeling which is developed under monotonous loading with fatigue effects under different amplitudes. The suggested methodology is based on an experimental analysis of monotonic behavior under fatigue loading and on multi-scale modeling of damage. In the results, the proposed model and the used approaches are in good agreement with the experimental results.

International audience; Short Fiber Reinforced Composite (SFRC) structures exhibit multiple microstructures (due to material flow during the process). They are generally subjected to variable amplitude loadings. In this context, a robust model is needed to predict fatigue life as a function of microstructure. In this paper, we propose a predictive micromechanical damage-based model allowing fatigue life prediction in the case of SFRC submitted to variable amplitude cyclic loading. An experimental study was firstly performed on Sheet Molding Compound (SMC) composite involving different microstructure configurations. Specimens were sub-jected to stress-controlled block loading. The influence of the order of the sequences was evaluated through Low-High amplitude (L-H) and High-Low amplitude (H-L) schemes. Damage accumulation is computed at the local scale to describe the evolution of the fiber-matrix interface damage until failure. A local failure criterion based on a critical damage state allowed predicting variable amplitude fatigue life as a function of microstructure. A good correlation was found between experimental and numerical results. Once the approach was validated, it has been used to model different useful variable amplitude loading schemes to emphasize the role of the loading sequence parameters and order.

International audience; Because of the high variability of SMC microstructure due to material flow during thermoforming, fatigue life prediction in real automotive structure represents a huge challenge. In this paper, we present a two-step microstructure selection involving an original ultrasonic method which is briefly presented. Then, on the basis of four selected microstructure configurations, an accurate experimental damage analysis is performed including both monotonic and cyclic loading. The high microstructure dependence of the obtained Whöler curves is demonstrated. Moreover, an experimental link between monotonic damage and fatigue life is emphasized. Then, a new fatigue life prediction methodology based on the later is proposed. This methodology also uses a micromechanical damage model in which a local damage criterion is involved for monotonic loading damage prediction. A very good agreement between experimental and predicted Whöler curves is demonstrated for all studied microstructures and three working temperatures. Finally, the model allows building a microstructure dependent Whöler curve abacus which may be very useful for SMC structures design.

The mastering of product reliability is essential for industrial competitiveness. If for metallic materials the topic is well-known, especially in automotive industry, Original Equipment Manufacturers are expecting strong support of their suppliers to full-fill the lack data. This paper presents a new original approach, using a micromechanical based on damage model to address the problem of reliability of Sheet Molding Compound (SMC) components. The first part demonstrates the inadequacy of the standard method of reliability on SMC material through its application on the new Peugeot 3008. In fact, the very flat S-N curve of SMC, and in general, composite materials is not appropriate for acceleration effect. The proposed model correlates the stress, damage and strength with both cycle number and slamming velocity. It emphasizes the relation between the effective distribution with the slamming velocity effect. Then, a new reliability approach based on a micromechanical fatigue/damage model was developed. The definition of new probability distributions based on damage was necessary to apply properly the stress-resistance approach. It allows taking into account the velocity effect by switching in damage space. Finally, applying this new methodology on the Peugeot 3008, leads to the definition of the optimal validation laboratory tests to ensure the reliability. Indeed, the required number of cycles to ensure reliability has been reduced significantly. Micromechanical damage reliability approach could be an efficient way to ensure the reliability of short fiber reinforcement composite components used in industrial context. Authors address a strong acknowledgment to E. FEIGE and Y. HAMOY, from PSA, for the data provided. Their comments and advices were also very useful.We are grateful to Mr. OZOUF for teaching and advices on the general topic of reliability.

The aim of this paper is to develop a probabilistic approach of high cycle fatigue (HCF) prediction of glass fiber-reinforced epoxy composites by taking into account the modifications induced by the variation of the loading parameters (stress and number of cycles) and those of the material parameters (fiber Young’s modulus and fiber volume fraction). Using fatigue curve analytical expression and Monte Carlo simulation assessment, probabilistic Wohler curves are plotted to predict the high cycle fatigue behavior of the material. In this regard, four cases are studied by varying the hypothesis for the stress and number of cycle values to be probabilistic or deterministic. The design of experiment (DoE) techniques are used in this work by varying the factors of interest in a full factorial design to evaluate the effect and the interaction of some factors influencing the fatigue reliability. The controlled input factors of the process are traduced by (i) the materials’ parameters represented by the variation of fiber and matrix Young’s moduli (E f and E m ) and the fiber volume fraction (V f ) and either traduced by (ii) the loading parameters represented by the applied stress and number of cycles.

International audience; The majority of fatigue life prediction models which have been proposed for the Short Fiber Reinforced Composite (SFRC) materials have been developed for constant temperature. However, in real situations, SFRC structures are subjected to variable temperature. This study focus on the response of SFRC composites subjected to different sequences (or blocks) under variable temperature conditions. Experientially, this kind of study requires a lot of investment from the point of view of cost and time. In this paper, the results coming from modelling the fatigue life and residual stiffness of short fiber reinforced composites subjected to thermomechanical loadings are reported. In fact, we propose to use a hybrid micromechanical-phenomenological model to quantify the evolution of the local damage rate during each loading block. Indeed, damage accumulation is calculated and cumulated step by step through the calculation of the evolution of a local damage ratio which describes the evolution of micro-cracks density until failure. Life prediction for specimens submitted to a variable temperature loading found to give acceptable results compared to experiments.